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May 02, 2007
About Dayna (or “Trip to Homún)
I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people here in Mexico and certainly a lot of diverse people at that.
On Monday, Friné and Monica, two Mexicanas, invited us to their friend’s house in Homún, a small pueblo southeast of Merida. I had such a great time with the two of them in Chabihau in March that I wanted to go with them again.
Friné and Monica invited four of us: Erich, Dayna, Rachel, and myself; we went by combi to the pueblo. While we were there, we swam in a cenote which ended up being a lot of fun.
I decided that taking off my glasses was probably the best thing to do, because I wanted to swim far out into the cenote; I didn’t want to take the chance that anything would happen to my glasses. But because I took them off, I could barely see where I was going. The group thought it was really funny (and I didn’t mind) that I was walking around tripping over people, swimming into rock walls, and talking to giant stones (which I thought, from a distance, were actually them) But I did get to swim far out into the cenote (which was bigger than almost all the others I’ve been to) and we had ended up having a really good time. Erich tried jumping me once or twice, but I evaded his plans; Rachel tried sneaking up on me as well. Actually, he did jump me once.
And, at some points, I was playing along and over-exaggerating my blindness so that we could just all pass the time laughing and enjoying ourselves. Because there probably wont be any more opportunities to do so.
I decided to stay overnight because my trip to Ek Balam was cancelled and because I was having such a good time.
In the morning, we went to a ranch that the Mexican’s family owned. We got to see the animals and the henequen that was being grown on the property. It was an opportunity that I haven’t had in a while.
And later, we returned to the cenote once more.
The trip was a lot of fun—not just because I was able to leave Merida and do things that I’ve rarely gotten the opportunity to do, but because I was able to spend some quality time with some great friends.
And if there’s something that I’ll always remember about my trip to Homún, it’ll be the great laughs I shared with Dayna. Dayna is such a funny person and made me laugh the entire time; she’s a student at Muhlenberg University and is from Connecticut—in a way, we can relate a lot to one another, because we come from a similar American culture.
People with Dayna’s personality are few and hard to come by; she did some great Jewish New Yorker impressions (kind of like Fran Drescher in “The Nanny”) and really pinpointed some of the funniest aspects of American culture (that we as Americans might overlook) to explain to the mexicanas.
Both Dayna and I also have a love for animals; we spent time caring for the dogs, touching the pigs, and taking lots of video footage while the others were inside.
On the way back to Merida from Homún, I sat next to Rachel in the combi. We had an interesting talk about how our views on Mexico have changed after living here. And a good point that she brought up: it was wrong to anticipate anything before coming to Mexico. It’s never a good idea to make any assumptions about another culture or another country, because the fact is, you just don’t know until you’re actually living in the culture—in the lifestyle. I really think that was a wise point that Rachel brought up.
So overall, it was a really good experience and I’m really glad that I did stay overnight.
And I really thank Dayna for making us all laugh a little bit.
Posted by jlsumich at May 2, 2007 06:03 PM